Question: would it make you angry to find out that your widow who has no income will have to wait a year to maybe a year-and-a-half or LONGER to get compensation from the VA that she legally is entitled? Would you be angry to learn that your widow had snide comments delivered to her by VA staff while filing her claim for benefits for which she is entitled? This country is upside down. Get pregnant and the government will fall all over itself to give you money. The more kids the more money. Come into the country illegally and the country will provide you with Social Security Benefits, house you, provide medical for you. pay for your kids to go to school, provide you with transportation and more. BUT if you are the widow of a disabled veteran and you have no income well,,,, you are just going to have to wait a year to a year-and-a-half and maybe LONGER before you get anything even if you don’t have any income and were dependent on the income your spouse had received because he was a disabled veteran who fought in a war has 16 air medals, a bronze star, and a purple heart. But, go get pregnant out of wedlock, be an illegal, and the government falls all over itself to provide you with everything you need. DOES ANYONE OUT THERE THINK THIS IS WRONG???????
Month: July 2015
THE VETERANS’ ADMINISTRATION DISASTER
I accompanied the widow of a friend of mine to the Regional Office of the VA located at Bay Pines, Florida. She had been a widow for just one week. We had the long form death certificate and she had already filed for the DIC claim through the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs. All was in order. All that is except the VA.
Chuck had been disabled permanently and totally by the VA for over 10 years. Brandy and he had been married for many years past the ten year requirement to obtain compensation from the VA upon the death of the veteran.
In this case, Brandy is to receive DIC payments for life following the death of her veteran husband. Brandy has spent years taking care of her husband. She has no income other than what her husband brought in from his VA pension and some Social Security. None meaning …. none. She expected and expects to receive a benefit package from the VA which is about 1/2 of the money paid to Chuck monthly as disability income from his service and injuries while serving in Vietnam.
Well, guess what? She was told that she would have to wait up to maybe a year-and-a-half before she would get a check from the government. WHAT????? She will have NO income from the VA for one to one-and-a-half-years.
That is what we were told at the VA Regional Office.
She sat there crying telling the man she had NO income. NO INCOME means NO INCOME. Oh, the guy said, but in a year-and-a-half you will get a check for the full amount covering that time. EXCUSE ME….. Between now and then what is she supposed to do to pay her bills and provide herself with food. SHE HAS NO INCOME. Well, in case they turn off her utilities or she becomes homeless there is another form she can fill out and file for hardship…..WHAT????….. She has to file another form and then wait for that form to be processed which could take how long? A few months.
Excuse me but this pisses me off. The widow of a 100% totally disabled veteran with no income has to wait up to possibly one-and-a-half-years before getting any compensation which by law she is qualified to receive.
WHY? Because the VA is so backed up with claims that she will have to wait for her Dependent Income and if she starves to death well, that is just too bad. If she has to live in a house with no electricity well that is okay. If she loses her home well that is just the way it is.
I say bull shit. This is governmental bull shit.
About July Fourth & an update on Predator.
Surviving the Fireworks
Well, we survived another fourth of being hammered with explosions and pieces of burning munitions falling from the sky. I’ve not been out to look at the screen porch. Hopefully it is okay. Some people just don’t understand that what goes up has to come back down. Fortunately it rained before the rocket show as some people were shooting from the woods where a fire had broken out a few years back when a bunch of kids shot off fireworks. The fire department had to come out and put it out before one of the houses burned down
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Our 11 1/2 year old Great Pyrenees had a tough night. On the 3rd I gave her 1/2 a pill for anxiety and it knocked her down. I’ll never do that again. She was so out of it that she couldn’t get up. Only gave her 1/8th of the same medication last night and it helped calm her without knocking her flat. I will have to let the vet know.
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Predator, The Man Who Didn’t Exist
Well, the killer is still sitting in prison in a 6 by 9 foot cell for 23 hours a day with no one to talk with. His attorneys are still looking at filing appeals. They want him off of death row. Too bad. He beat one woman to death and is a suspect in another grisly murder.
The book is now at 420 pages and that is with my cutting here and there. I have been working on this book now for 3 years. I think it needs to get done.
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Upcoming
A fellow Vietnam Vet wants me to write a book about his tour of duty in Vietnam.
What was left of the helicopter after being shot down.
We are waiting for Soldier of Fortune to print Shot Down In Laos. It is a story about a rescue mission that went bad in Laos in 1969. Unfortunately the man the story is about died just a few weeks back. His funeral was just a week back.
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New Followers
derline
https://derline.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/just-me/ She lives in the Philippines and has a great page that includes photos. She can also be found on Gravatar: http://en.gravatar.com/bhitok
Dr. Joseph Suglia
http://en.gravatar.com/drjosephsuglia He is a writer and some of his work can be seen at: http://table41thenovel.com/2014/12/21/table-41-a-novel-by-joseph-suglia/
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Thanks for stopping by! But, don’t forget http://www.805lit.org!
Followers 7/3/15: Miller Happy3, Marc Kutyloski, Fosterthepodcast
A few new followers:
http://en.gravatar.com/millerhappy3 http://millerhappy3.com/ Well, he is a writer. He has several “chapters” displayed on his site and a number of other bloggers had “liked” them. Your turn to go and look.
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http://wheatorweeds.com/about/ http://wheatorweeds.com/2015/05/07/spirituality-vs-religion/
Marc writes: My good friend Joey once told me, “Religion is for people who don’t want to go to hell and spirituality is for people who have already been to hell and don’t want to go back.”
You know something? I like that. However, and this is not a criticism, but for some this might be a bit too rich in religion. Just sayin’. I like the site. I think it is an honest site and worth visiting.
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https://fosterthepodcast.wordpress.com/about-2/ A comedian. Okay, Never had a comedian following me. Justin Foster and Kristie Marie have weekly events that sound really like a lot of fun. Drunken Samurai fights? Really? Missing Kidneys? Looks like a fun place. I’m going!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/foster-the-podcast/id613983475?mt=2
Through the Eyes of the Crokus – continued # 2…..The VA……Today I Fired My Lawn Service….Predator
Through the Eyes of the Crokus – continued forward 2.
Li Sun was aged two cycles. His armour-plate scales had begun to harden but were not dry enough nor thick enough to protect him against an attack by a hungry adult. At the age of two he was called “a desirable,” meaning he would have been good to eat.
Many youth of the Crokus Clan and those of the Yagi Clan never made it to the third cycle. There were those adults that patrolled the outer edges of the known worlds and if a youth was caught off world by another clan they stood the possibility of being killed for their protein rich organs. Once aged 3 cycles it would be almost impossible to penetrate the armoured outer skin. That barrier could only be removed at the pleasure of the wearer which was rare except at the exchange of sexes once every fifty cycles. When that occurred they were all vulnerable to attack. Were it not for the overpowering of the breeding they would have extinguished the clans in bloodshed tens of thousands of cycles in the past, but the sexual draw was greater than that of the need of protein and the pain that came with the removal of the protective skins.
Li Sun glanced around himself at the shadows standing close. He could feel their breath on his drying armour plate. They were right, he shouldn’t be out at the unregistered limits of the then know universe. It was foolish of him, and yet he knew that everyone of those there with him had done the same at his age. In a moment he would bolt shooting skyward and away from those who would most surely curse him as he did for he was not only quick but agile and able to turn and reverse direction in a space that none of those surrounding him would be capable of doing.
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FOLLOWERS
http://en.gravatar.com/annepm2015
She writes of herself that she is a writer. She lives in the metropolitan Atlanta area, and is a native of Georgia. She writes of an illness at the following address and how she handles it. https://annermurray.wordpress.com/2015/03/25/harsh-reality/
I think her story is incredible and she is well worth getting to know.
https://annermurray.wordpress.com/2015/03/05/born-with-a-handicap/ She speaks of herself as being handicapped, not from illness or injury but because she is female. I think she is an interesting read.
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The VA…. well, apparently some guy went to the VA and told them he was suicidal and in need of help. He was told, according to him and some others, that they had no room for him and turned him away. He returned and had a camera on his and he recorded being told to leave. The VA is in worse shape today than it was two years ago when the news bureaus all began reporting the problems. Where are they now? Where are the reporters now?The suicide rate among veterans is horrific. This is true among women and men vets. There is a special hotline available for those in trouble. Depression and PTSD are real. I occasionally will run into an idiot that will say, “They just need to suck it up and get over it.” Wow, wouldn’t it be wonderful if it was that easy.
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The Lawn Service.
We have had the same lawn service now since we moved here in 2003. They have not been taking care of the property like they should for sometime now. So, today I fired them. Now I feel badly. But should I? I don’t know.
I wonder, is it my fault for letting them slip and slide? They have lost three lawns on my street. Maybe I wasn’t clear enough in what I wanted. I’m not sure. They were supposed to be weeding…they weren’t. They were supposed to be trimming our shrubs….they weren’t. And, when they did (after I called them) they used equipment that wasn’t sharp so the bushes were mangled. Is that my fault? Is it my fault that I didn’t stand on top of them to make sure they were doing the job right? Then there is the language barrier. His men mostly speak Spanish. I mostly speak English. Should I speak more Spanish?
So, why do I feel guilty and sad?
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PREDATOR
Trying to finish. I have two other narrative nonfiction, another book of poetry, and more that I need to take care of. Predator is over 400 pages now.
Through the Eye of the Crokus
Through the Eye of the Crokus
Copyright 2015 by Gordon Kuhn
When the earth was young and dark, for there was no light in the sky in those days, he sat upon the mountainside and watched with eyes half hooded as life stirred below him. Hunger was beyond him. Even if the desire to feed had brought him there, he was unable to do so. He had seen too much in his short life and had lost the appetite for small things scurrying in the dark.
His wings were folded tightly behind him. When open, they had a span tip to tip of over 12 feet and yet that was small for one of his clan. They would grow no more, he knew. But he needed no more growth. Too much width could be dangerous when flying sinks not known to him. A slight mistake could send a pilot in training, such as he, careening off cavern walls. He realized it was better to have less wingspan than to have too much.
A chill wind came from the valley below. It had swept up from deep within the earth and vented itself from out of the sink he had explored earlier. He flew with such grace. A ballet in the dark. A dance without music to accompany him. He simply rose and fell in the silence. His wings cut through the air bringing a spinning turbulence unexpected by the creatures who lived in the dark. They turned and rolled and looked this way and that as he passed over them. Unable to speak they simply made groaning noises at each pass. Incapable to see they were aware of his presence only by the brush of his fur coated wings and the change in air pressure as he passed close over them.
But then he sat, content with himself, with his freedom, and with half shuttered eyes he stared out into the dark. His stomach was empty and had been for days. But soon, he thought; he would lift from this place and pass by the growth of rock that one day would be called a moon to the planet he had chosen to rest upon.
But for the time he just sat and waited in the dark until he heard the sound of braking wings close by over his head. He looked toward the sound, the pace of his heart taking a leap.
He had been found!
A cold shift took place among the scales that covered his body like armor. He blinked and stared at the place where he knew another of his clan had landed feeling for them with his radar like senses. Trying to touch them, to get an idea of their size and shape. In that way, he would know them and would be ready himself to fight or openly welcome the newcomer.
“Li Sun,” a voice, deep and elegant, spoke his name from the proximity of where he knew the other flyer had landed. His heart stopped mid-beat and held as if frozen. “Li Sun. I know you are there, I can smell you.”
“We can smell you.” The voice of a large male shattered the silence on Li Sun’s right.”Did you really think that you could so easily slip away and, taking wing, come to this pile of rock without notice”
“I—,” Li Sun started to speak when a third voice growled. “I suggest we eat him.” The owner landed in front of Li Sun (pronounced Lee Soon). “What say you, Park Nor?”
The first of the three cleared his throat and replied, “I have thought on that, However, his father sent us to locate him, his father is of the royal blood, he would resent us eating his son unless he was present for the feast.”
“And then,” a fourth voice, softer than the others, female, came from behind Li Sun as a tiny landslide of pebbles and small stones slipped out from under her as she landed with her great wings back beating to slow her descent, “there is the matter of his right to slit the young one’s throat.”
July 2, 2015: Followers, Lost Friends, 805 Literary Magazine
1) Followers: The GreenLand Diaries began to follow my blog back on April 7, 2015 http://en.gravatar.com/greenlanddiary. Greenland Diaries is a book, I think because there are reviews located at https://greenlanddiary.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/early-reviews-of-the-greenland-diaries-days-1-100/
Human Relationships is also following me as of 4/7/15. http://human–relationships.com/ Problem is that while there is a neat picture there is nothing written unless you count the links in the side bar which I didn’t explore
2) These past few weeks have been very odd. It started with the death of a friend, Dan Anders, who had survived Vietnam, a sudden illness that came out of nowhere and almost killed him, then came the anthrax exposure which he survived, the pancreatic cancer brought the end. But why? How could this be?
After all he was being followed by not only the VA but the National Institute of Health, the Center for Disease Control, the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA. No one learned where or how he had been exposed to the anthrax.
There was an autopsy up at Bethesda. He was buried in a family plot near the woods he loved while a grieving widow stood and watched.
It happened fast. Four months back the cancer was discovered. They gave him 7 to 9 months. Then two weeks later they revised it to 3 months. A week later it was 3 weeks. Then he died 2 weeks later. I was in the hall at the Hospice unit at Bay Pines.
Then Chuck Van Durme. Chuck had sixteen air medals, a bronze star, and a purple heart. He died of a heart attack in the middle of the night. He had gotten up and walked down the hall on his way to his bathroom. His wife, Brandy, told me she heard him fall and went to help him. She got him to his feet and then he fell again taking her with him. He was pronounced DOA at the hospital.
I wrote a story about Chuck. It will be in the Soldier of Fortune magazine in September. It is about the night that his helicopter was shot down on a mission to rescue part of a Special Forces Team in Laos.
3) A new literary magazine: http://www.805lit.org It is being produced by the Manatee County Library System. It has art work, short stories, and poetry. And a subscription is free. Excellent writing there. I have a poem there.
